Hearing the Voice of God
How can we best prepare ourselves to hear the voice of God?
1. Examination of Conscience and Confession
- By making a good and frequent examination of conscience, we can see what our biases and tendencies are and how they influence the way we see things. In addition, the sacrament of reconciliation helps us to identify our predominant faults.
2. Practicing daily meditation
-We must take the time to reflect on what we’re reading – to stop and ponder the meaning of the words. It will help us attune ourselves to God’s voice.
-At first, the information we “hear” can be knowledge-based. After a while, it moves from there to our heart and we become more sensitive to His voice.
3. Time in adoration
How does God speak to us?
1. God speaks through what He’s revealed. Consider the Ten Commandments and what the Church teaches in the Catechism (CCC).
2. Through other people
-He can speak to us through the people in our lives who are in a direct position of authority in some way–such as a spiritual mentor, spouse, priest, or boss.
-God can also speak to us through people who cross our path or spiritual books we read.
3. Through circumstances
-For example, if you’re looking for a job and all the doors are closed except for one, that could be God speaking to you and showing you the way.
How do I know it is God speaking to me in prayer and not the devil, the world, or even just myself?
“He will speak to you by inspirations, interior lights, manifestations of His goodness, sweet touches in your heart, tokens of forgiveness, experiences of peace, hopes of heaven, rejoicing within you, voices of love, and strength.” ~ St. Teresa of Avila about how God communicates with us
What do I do when I’ve heard God’s voice?
-We can take what He’s revealed to us and then apply that to our conscience as we strive to follow God’s Will for us.
-A useful analogy for how our conscience works is a spell checker: it doesn’t decide how to spell words on its own but relies on the information someone has programmed into it. In the same way, the conscience doesn’t make up for itself God’s voice. It simply applies the information it has received to life’s situations.
-Depending on what you are listening for/heard, consider praying through the Tools:
• Virtues and 3 Parts of a Prudential Decision
• 3 Tests of a Moral Act
What about actually hearing God’s voice?
There can be a danger in waiting to actually hear God’s voice; such action can indicate spiritual pride. “I can hear God speak to me, so I don’t need all those other ways.” We need to remember to be docile and humble to how God is trying to speak to us.
Pride can create other challenges to hearing and following the voice of God.
1. Being Irresolute:
-Continually questioning what we’ve discerned is what God is calling us to do. A great example is when we’ve determined when to pray and how to increase our time with the sacraments, etc. And then a month later after not taking action, we say, “I’m really struggling with what God wants.” Christ has already given us the answer—that is to pick up our cross and carry it daily.
2. Having False Humility:
-The flip side of “I’m really struggling with what God wants (and I want to do something else)” is the struggle with feeling unworthy, guilty, unequipped, etc. Sometimes we need encouragement because we think: “I don’t deserve this gift I’ve been given. I feel guilty because what I asked for is happening. I’ve been invited to do X, but I could ‘never’ do that.” Sometimes we need to take that leap of faith. Fr. Jacques Philippe makes the analogy of jumping out of an airplane without knowing if the parachute will open. God may be calling us to take the leap and then we’ll feel equipped.
Meditation suggestion:
Reflect on 1 Kings 19:11-13 Hearing the quiet, still voice of God